OK Good

A tranquil, atmospheric observation of a hamlet somewhere in Russia. The title card at the beginning provides the latitude and longitude of the place and tells us that we’re 900 kilometers (560 miles) from St. Petersburg and 700 from Moscow. The three St. Petersburg film and theater students Alexandra Kulak, Anna Kornienko and Yulia Kurmangalina convey their sense of alienation about this phlegmatic, unpretentious place with an opening shot in which the surroundings are reflected upside down in the hood of their car. While the camera meanders past fields and over paths to capture the place in panoramic shots or the beauty of a detail, we meet some of the residents, whose musical contributions serve as a leitmotif for the film. Unsteady renditions of old songs show that public performances belong to a distant past. The population of the village has aged considerably – nowadays, only the cattle are young. But the place itself is timeless, and the directors have edited together images and sounds with a wonderful sense of color, shape and rhythm, offering up a soothing and sometimes humorous rural meditation.